MAP 1: Who ruled where in 1328:English King Edward III held lands mainly in Aquiraine,
the rich wine-growing province around Bordeaux in SW
France.

Fighting started in the Hundred Years' War because the
Kings of England - descendants of William the Conqueror who
still spoke French -wanted to rule France as well. France
was temptingly weak and divided.

It began with the English King already ruling a large
part of France (see Map 1); it ended
with him ruling hardly any, but with what is now Nord - Pas
de Calais split off under foreign rule for several
centuries.

The English claimIt began in 1328, when the French king died with
no children. The English king Edward III actually had a good
"claim" to inherit the French throne. Edward's claim was
through his French mother, Eleanor, who was the dead French
king's aunt . It was usual for medieval royal families to
intermarry like this, always seeking to make alliances.

The French splitFrench nobles faced a choice: who would give them
more power and independence in their own lands - a French
King in Paris who they had helped into power, or a distant
Englaih King ruling often from London?

The first faction rushed to crown a French cousin whose
claim. was not as good as Edward's. With their new king,
they attacked Edward's lands in SW France (Aquitaine) and in
1337, Edward III declared war.

The other faction allied with Edward. Counts of Flanders
tended to take England's side against France in any
conflict, because of links with England in the vital
wool trade. Powerful lords
in other outlying regions such as Brittanny and Normandy
feared the ambitions of those who wanted a stronger
centralised French kingdom. They allied with the English. to
help keep their independence

The English
"nutcracker"Tactically Edward had a strong position, with the
French caught in a "nutcracker" between Edward's lands held
as Duke of Aquitaine in the south and his Flemish and other
allies in the north.

English win one of the first ever sea battles: the Battle of
Sluys 1340
English slaughter French knights at the Battle of Crecy
1346

French disasters:
(1) losing control of the ChannelIn 1340, the French king prepared the first blow:
he assembled a great fleet, carrying an army to crush
England's allies in Flanders before invading England itself.
But the English attacked and destroyed the French fleet at
sea off Sluys (east of Dunkerque, in modern Holland). Both
sides anchored their ships and fought something like a land
battle across the wooden decks.

Edward III now controlled the Channel and was free to
invade and wage war over the enemy's lands - which proved
catstrophic for the people of the North. The English army
was a mixed force of infantry, archers, pikemen and light
cavalry - battle-hardened after successfully fighting the
Welsh and Scots, and made up of well-trained and organised
English mercenaries, enthusiastic supporters of his cause
and eager for plunder. They proved to be the most effective
army Europe had seen since the Romans.

(2) losing their finest
knights at CrecyIn 1346, the English invaders were weakened by
sickness and retreating to the channel ports. They took a
stand on a hill at Crecy.

As the heavily armoured French knights struggled up the
muddy hillside in a traditional feudal cavalry charge. they
were massacred by the English infantry and archers - a
lesson they did not learn.

(3) losing Calais, which
gave England a base in N.FranceEdward III then besieged Calais. After a year,
the inhabitants were starving - but under medieval
tradition, they would expect to be killed if the attackers
succeeded, because they had fought back. Six leading
citizens offered their own lives if Edward III would spare
the rest of the townsfolk.

His queen took pity on them, and asked if the brave
burghers could also be spared if the town surrendered. The
citizens of Calais were permitted to leave their town
without further bloodshed; their homes were given to new
English settlers, who made Calais into a fortified English
stronghold - a base for military expeditions into France and
the near-Continent for the next two centuries.

The capture of Calais (L to R):1.
Edward III besieges the
town in 13472.
Calais Town Hall with its spectacular belfry, and the famous
statue of the Six Burghers by Rodin.3.
In 1349, the French tried to retake Calais - despite
sickness, the English defenders beat them
off.

Misery and the Black
Death

Soldiers looting a captured town

The first half of the Hundred Years War proved as
catastrophic for the North as well as the rest of
France.

Destructive fighting disrupted the economy: there were
appalling plagues (at least a third of the population of
both England and France died in 1348 in the Black Death),
and violent and bloody revolts in which peasants looted
nobles' houses and castles.

French defeat and
creation of the Franc
Peace was declared in 1360. The English won a massive
victory at Poitiers (1356), tcapturing the French
King Jean le Bon. He was released for a ransom paid
in gold coins called "franc-or" - "free gold".* He agreed to
end the fighting, and to leave the English in control of
large areas in western France - as well as Calais.

Reverses
for the EnglishThe peace allowed the French King to establish
more control. In 1369 the Count of Flanders died, and
the French king, Charles V, had - for the time being -
driven the English from their early conquests in the north
of France. He broke the Anglo-Flemish alliance, by forcing
the Count's only child, Marguerite of Flanders, to marry his
brother Philippe, Duke of Burgundy. The marriage joined the
Low Countries in the north with Burgundy in the east. After
a few skirmishes, Flanders acquiesced.

The dying English king Edward III had hoped to strengthen
the Anglo-Flemish alliance by marrying the sought-after
heiress to his fifth son - instead his ally was now
controlled by France. As the English grew weaker, Philippe
brought the whole area of Falnders firmly under his control.
It remained Burgundian for four reigns of French kings.

1381 Peasants' Revolt in England:
Richard II meets the Kentish rebels led by Wat TylerMAP 2: By 1382, Richard II has lost
most of the French lands won by his grandfather Edward
III

English Peasants Revolt
1381Young Richard II faced an English Peasants'
Revolt in 1381. - fuelled by bitter resentment of the unfair
Poll Tax raised to pay for the costly French wars.

The French took advantage of English weakness. Having
driven the English out of all but Calais and a few other
strongholds in France (see Map 2), the
French struck across the Channel, helped by Spanish warships
based in Rouen.

Savage French raidsIn savage raids in the 1380s, the French briefly
captured the Isle of Wight, and burned south coast towns
like Sandwich, Winchelsea and Gravesend. In Kent, Canterbury
and Dover hurriedly build town walls. Bodiam Castle was
built to protect Sussex. The English knew the French had
gathered a big fleet; and expected an invasion in 1386.Back to
top

...then Burgundy splits
with the French crownFrench success did not last! In 1380 the French king
Charles V was succeeded by his son, Charles VI, who sadly
became insane. He had no children, and a feud developed over
who shuld take over.

In 1407 the French royal family divided into two
camps - the Armagnacs (Maison d'Orleans) and the
Burgundians. Their feud plunged France into civil
war. The powerful Duke of Burgundy failed to win the French
crown, but decided to set up his own empire instead.

MAP 3: 1430 - the height of English power in France. The
Duke of Burgundy, allied with the English has captured Joan
of Arc.

1415 Azincourt - the
height of English powerThe English took advantage of French divisions to
invade Normandy again. In 1415 Henry V, king of England, was
returning towaeds Calais when the French army, superior in
number, caught up with hom at Azincourt.
This resultied in another annihilation like Crecy, English
archers wiped out the flower of the French nobility.

After this victory, Henry V conquered the north and west
of France (see Map
3)- very nearly succeeding
in achieving his grandfather Edward III's ambitions.

Burgundy expands in the
North...Allied again with England, the Duke of Burgundy
conquered the county of Boulogne, then Hainaut and the
bishopric of the Cambrésis.

...and Henry V prepares
his coronation in Paris
While the weak French king cowered south of Paris in the
small remaining part of his kingdom.In1420 he signed the
Treaty of Troyes with Henry V., agreeing to English rule
over N France, and that Henry would inherit the crown of
France on his death - to run the two countries as a dual
kingdom.

Jeanne d'Arc - a peasant girl inspired by "voices of angels"
rouses the demoralised french trrops and saves
Orléans from an English siege

Joan of
Arc - the French fight back
In 1429, Joan of Arc began her quest to unite the
French behind the future Charles VII and drive the English
out of France. She relieved siege of Orleans, and led the
Dauphin to be crowned at Rheims in 1429.

But Joan was captured by Burgundian troops and handed
over to the English. They burnt her as a witch (for wearing
men's clothes), at English-held Rouen in 1431. English Henry
VI was crowned king of France in Paris.

However Joan had inspired a French revival.With a
well-organised disciplined army, the French king Charles VII
now had the war-weary English on the run.Back to
top

In 1435 Charles VII bribed Philippe le Bon, Duke of
Burgundy, to break the alliance with the English in exchange
for Ponthieu. Only fours years later, though, he
re-established the important wool
trade relations with England and the Flemish economy
took off again.

Driving the English out
of France

1450 - French king captures Cherbourg, England's last
stronghold in Normandy - ending the link from
1066

One by one, Charles VII besieged and captured the
remaining English strongholds.

With the capture of Bordeaux
(1453), the
English had lost all their French all their French lands
except Calais.(see Map 4)

That was really the end of the One Hundred Years war so
far as England was concerned , though a formal treaty to end
the war between England and France was only signed in
1475.

Charles VII's son, Louis XI (1461-1483) now fought to
assert his power over the mighty nobles - especially the
Duke of Burgundy....

The Aftermath: France v.
Burgundy

MAP 4: By 1470, the English have lost everything except
Calais; Henry XI turns all his forces on the Duke of
Burgundy...

In 1461 Louis XI confronted Charles the Foolhardy,
the last duke of Burgundy, who ruled a huge and very rich
state stretching from the North Sea to the Alps (see
Map 4)

The frontier lands between them, Artois and Picardy, were
ravaged once again by bitter fighting.

1464: young French King Louis XI (centre,
left) fails to agree peace terms with Charles, Duke of
Burgundy (centre, right). They fight for the next 13
years.

How Nord-Pas de Calais
came under foreign rule
In 1477 Charles the Foolhardy was killed in a siege of
Nancy, near what is now Switzerland. Louis XI quickly took
advantage, conquered much of the North, and permanently
siezed Burgundy itself.

Before the dead Duke's inheritance had completely fallen
to Louis XI, Marie, his heir and the new Duchess of
Burgundy, married a Hapsburg, the future Emperor,
Maximilian of Austria.

It took Maximilian 20 years to re-establish control over
the lands of his predecessor. Louis XI continued fighting on
this distant frontier, reluctant to leave the North in
foreign hands. But by 1493, Maximilian as Duke of Burgundy
once again ruled Arras and
the Artois region as well Flanders.

Fpr the next 150 years, France fought to keep hold of the
region around Montreuil and Boulogne. Four isolated French
strongholds also remained in Burgundian territory ,
including Therouanne
and Hesdin.

France fought to control
Montreuil and the Artois region

Henry VIII and François I met in a grandiose summit
outside the English stronghold at Calais - but failed to
agree an alliance.

Maximilian's grandson, Charles V, became Emperor in 1519.
To limit his territorial ambitions and to get help in
regaining Artois, François I sought an alliance with
England. In 1520 they met at the
Field of the Cloth of Gold , but failed to agree. Henry
VIII went off to Gravelines to join forces with Charles V
instead.

1529 - the Treaty of Madrid-Cambrai restored the
Artois region to the Charles V as Duke of Burgundy. For a
century, Montreuil became the frontier fortress of
France.

1537 - Charles V besieged and captured Montreuil
with English help. they pillaged and largely destroyed the
town.

1544 - Henry VIII besieged and captured Boulogne,
but handed it back to France in 1550 for a
considerable sum. Montreuil held out against another
Anglo-Spanish siege.

1553 - The French continued their bloody
incursions into Imperial territory from their Artois
strongholds. An infuriated Charles V ordered their total
annihilation: Thérouanne
and Hesdin were razed to
the ground and the soil rendered sterile with salt.

1558 - The French finally won Calais back from the
English. In the 16th century, and until reconquest by the
French, blood origins remain of vital importance : under
Spanish rule, you were only allowed to work for the local
administration if you were born in Flanders, Artois or
Hesdin.

1567 - Meanwhile, the French king built a
strong Citadelle at Montreuil. It was again attacked by the
Spanish in 1594 - they realised the gateway was a
weak point, so the town walls were strengthened with only
two gateways in and out. In 1604, Henri IV visited Montreuil
and declared it "Fidelissima Picardorum Natio."